Meet Zac
Zac Cramer: Business FixeR
and Professional Truth-Teller
“Look, I've Made Every Mistake You Can Think Of…”
My first business was literally stealing my dad's tools at age 8 and selling them to neighbors. Terrible margins, zero repeat customers, and my mom shut me down within an hour. But hey, at least I learned early that entrepreneurship is messy.
I kept making mistakes through candy dealing in middle school, ticket scalping in college, and building a computer repair chain. The pattern was always the same: try something, screw it up, learn something, try again.
By 2016, I was running IT Assurance and doing everything wrong. Sure, we'd grown from $6K to $155K monthly revenue, but I was broke, exhausted, and avoiding every difficult conversation. I kept employees who should've been fired months earlier because I was too chicken to have the hard talks.
Then an employee ended up hospitalized due the stress of being in the wrong role and underperforming. That's when I realized my "kindness" was actually cruelty—to her, to my team, to my business, and to myself.
The Breakdown That Led to Breakthrough
Getting my shit together
I hired a COO through Craigslist (I know, I know) who called me out on everything. Javier taught me that being a leader means making the hard calls, not avoiding them. We fired people, fired customers, and rebuilt everything.
The result? 2018 was our most profitable year ever. Turns out businesses work better when you actually manage them instead of hoping problems go away.
Why I Do This Now
If it sounds like I’m over-excited about the topic of firing, I swear it’s not because I’m a heartless jerk! It’s because I’ve been in that awful, gut-wrenching positioning of knowing someone was wrong for my business and not taking action.
I truly want to help leaders act on tough decisions in a way that is clear and kind, and helps the business to move forward.
"There was no doubt that the seeds of what was to give my life meaning and purpose had been planted. That day, my 'job' ended and my calling began."
— Oprah Winfrey (on being fired from her first TV anchor job)
The Bottom Line
I'm not here to blow sunshine up your ass or pretend leadership is easy. I'm here to tell you what actually works, what doesn't, and how to stop avoiding the conversations that could save your business.
Fair Warning
I talk fast, swear occasionally, and will probably make you uncomfortable. But you'll leave knowing exactly what to do next and with the confidence to actually DO IT.